Devastating disease found in endangered Tennessee bats

Source: Reuters

Devastating disease found in endangered Tennessee bats

By Laura Zuckerman

Tue May 29, 2012 11:45pm EDT

(Reuters) - A disease that has killed millions of hibernating bats in the United States has been detected for the first time in endangered gray bats in Tennessee, a finding that government scientists on Tuesday described as "devastating."

White-nose syndrome, a disease named for the fungal residue left on the muzzles of infected bats, does not appear to have killed any gray bats so far. But federal biologists said the latest emergence of the disease constitutes a grave threat to the cave-dwelling winged mammals added to the U.S. endangered species list in 1976.

The gray bat is now the second federally protected species, and the seventh species in all, documented with the fungus in 19 states east of the Rocky Mountains. White-nose syndrome, first discovered in New York state in 2006, has killed an estimated 5.5 million bats that hibernate in caves and mines.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/us-usa-bats-tennessee-idUSBRE84T03X20120530